Ridge Racer Unbounded

Bugbear has traditionally developed cult hits, so it's great to see the studio given the opportunity to work with a major franchise. Unbounded may not have much to do with the things that defined Ridge Racer, but if you can get over that, you'll discover an energetic, entertaining racer, with gratifyingly destructive environments, challenging gameplay and interesting online. Ridge Racer was due for a reboot, and here it is.

It’s not perfect, and it doesn’t even really feel like a Ridge Racer game, but Unbounded is one of the best arcade racers in years. It’s nice to see that publishers aren’t completely abandoning the genre, and with some luck, others will follow BugBear’s lead and continue to evolve long running franchises in meaningful ways.

It’s a shame that Ridge Racer Unbounded didn’t turn out like it could and should’ve ended up, due to wanting too much and balancing too little. Still, this amazingly fabricated product might still hold a vast amount of content and fun times for those that really bear down, grit their teeth and stay determined to explore the simulation arcade hybrid title it has become.

There's an absolutely excellent Ridge Racer game to be had with Bugbear's occasionally thrilling mix of speed and action, but unfortunately Unbounded is far too muddled and confused to be it.

All of which makes it extremely difficult to put a score on the end of this review. There were times when Unbounded crept into frustration territory that almost saw it as a complete write-off, but perseverance eventually unlocked something special indeed. If they can throw in a decent tutorial and unhinge the AI somewhat, then this would be one of the better racers of the last few years. As it stands though, there is brilliance to be found beneath the weird obfuscation, but you’ll need to w...

Here's how you know you're playing a Ridge Racer game: there's palm trees, sandy beaches, azure blue skies, a helicopter occasionally swooping down dangerously close to your car, there's a mental techno soundtrack and you can powerslide at impossible angles. Only some of those elements have made the cut for Ridge Racer's dark half however, as the yang to the series' usual bright and breezy yin. Ridge Racer: Unbounded is an almost completely different beast altogether, but the fun and arcade-c...